SERENITY

Chapter 31: Memories

"Mom can I go out?"

The ravenette asked her mother with curiosity in her silver orbs. She held her mother's yukata with a gentle tug, yearning for an answer. Her mother just smiled at her but behind her gentle smile was sadness.

"Your body can't take the cold Hikaru, you know that right?"

The girl's eyes saddened with realization. She knew and she understood why her parents didn't want her going out especially during the winter. She's sickly and weak that's why she rarely goes outside their home. Her body is sensitive and fragile from the moment she was born making her unable to be like any other children. She can't go out and play, not like she have any friends either because they live deep in the mountains away from others.

"I'm sorry sweetie I never wanted you to be like this. We know how much you wanted to go outside but we can't risk your health"

Aiko Asagiri consoled her little daughter who only nodded in understanding and went to her usual spot near the window, wrapped in her blankets. She heaved a heavy sigh. Her heart aches for her daughter who practically lived all her life inside their little home deep in the woods with no friends to even play with and yet she never complained.

She looked at the insignia in her wrist. The spider lily flower which symbolizes the Asagiri Clan. The keeper of the rare Blue Spider Lily flower.

Their clan had always lived away from everyone to protect their secrets and the prized location of the Blue Spider Lily. They trust no one except their own brethren who bore the mark of the flower in their body during birth. Although few people outside their clan had knowledge of the Blue Spider Lily, they didn't want to take a risk and hid deep in the mountains for security.

"One day, a man with plum red eyes will seek for the Blue Spider Lily flower. Please never let him have it for humanity will be in danger"

This was the message of a doctor hundred years ago who had close relations to the Clan. The doctor belongs to the Ubuyashiki family. The only family whom the Asagiri Clan trusts. He warned their ancestors and that message was passed down to generations after generations. The clan had took this as a warning and hid for a hundred years. It was all going fine till that day came. A dark presence had visited them, embodied by a man named Kibutsuji Muzan. It all came true.

Muzan asked for the Blue Spider Lily but no one spilled the secret. It was afterall the pride of their clan. No matter what happens, they will never tell him the location of the said flower. Until they were all slaughtered mercilessly by him.

But the head of the clan at that time wasn't going to let the clan be erased and forgotten. He did everything he can and secretly let his only daughter escape from the compound through a secret passage. That daughter was Aiko Asagiri. She ran away, far from her home with tears in her eyes. She knew what her father wanted. To live and continue their bloodline. To carry the family secrets and pass it onto the next generation.

Then she met Masaru Takihiro. He was a demon slayer but he abandoned his occupation and went into hiding together with Aiko. They fell inlove and Hikaru was born. They were happy although Hikaru was born with a weak body. She easily gets sick, that's why they are doing everything they can to take care of her. Aiko does all the household chores and Masaru often travels for days to find supplies and medicinal herbs in hopes of improving Hikaru's condition. He even began studying medicine and it was then Aiko proposed to use the Blue Spider Lily although they weren't sure of what will be the effects.

"Hikaru sweetie, your birthday is just two days from now~ are you excited?"

Hikaru immediately looked at her mother with excitement. Her father would be coming home tomorrow and he always brought interesting stuff for her birthday but her favorite was books. She loved to read at such a young age and her favorite was books with illustrations of different places. Maybe because it's her way of coping up with her desire to go out and explore.